Shalom Park Freedom School

Shalom Park Freedom School

The vision for the Shalom Park Freedom School (SPFS) is to engage in tikkun olam by fulfilling the highest level of Jewish charity: helping 80 children in our community become self-sufficient through closing this achievement gap with a six-week literacy based summer program.

These 80 scholars are selected from Huntingtowne Farms and Sterling, the elementary schools in faith-based partnerships with Temple Israel and Temple Beth El. Other important goals for the Freedom School include:

• To build Jewish community, identity and pride
• To engage at Shalom Park a segment of the Jewish population highly committed to social action; we currently have 150 active volunteers from across Shalom Park and an individual donor base of approximately 150
• To increase teen leadership and sensitivity to the plight of low-income children in our community through our Teen Board, the first in the nation, with 27 teens now assisting the scholars in education, enrichment and camp-type activities

The project is a collaboration of 8 agencies at Shalom Park: Temple Israel, Temple Beth El, The Levine-Sklut Judaic Library, The Charlotte Jewish Day School, Sandra and Leon Levine Jewish Community Center, Jewish Family Services, The Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, and The Foundation of Shalom Park.